


After A Fresh Start

by conceptstage



Series: Critical Fiction [11]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, de-aged character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: A series of short fics that take place in the same universe as my fic A Fresh Start. Will probably be a little lost if you haven't read that. Will update tags as I add more stories.





	1. Beau & Jester

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Fresh Start](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15693012) by [conceptstage](https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place ~6 months after the end of A Fresh Start. Beau is 9.

Beau was late for the first time ever and Jester paced around the inn room they shared in Zadash. Nott was sitting on the bed Beau had claimed by the window and was sorting through the things she'd stolen in town that day. “Relax,” the goblin said, setting aside a little statuette she'd ‘found’ in a temple. It was in the shape of a fist and she just thought Beau would like it. She didn't have a lot of things of her own since they were always travelling. “She's not a baby. She probably just lost track of time.”

“She's never been late before! She's always been so careful, she knows I worry. What if she's lost? What if she's trapped? What if she's dead? What if she's arrested?!”

“That last one is most likely. Wanna go check the jail?”

The door opened then and Beau stepped in, smiling at her feet. She looked up and her idle smile fell when she saw them waiting for her. “What?” she asked.

“You're late!” Nott chastised. “Do you have any idea how worried we were?”

“The sun hasn't even gone down yet, give me a break,” she sneered. It was somewhat comforting how similar she was to the Beau they remembered.

“Where were you?” Jester asked.

“Get off my ass. I was hanging out with some kids I met. I can't spend all my time with people more than twice my age.”

Jester blinked in surprise before an ecstatic smile split her face. “You made friends?!?!” she squealed, far too loudly.

Beau blushed and refused to look at them moving over to her rucksack to change her clothes. “Don't act like it's a miracle or something. Jeez.”

Jester gently shooed Nott out of the room, cutting off her protests by shutting the door in her face. She was skipping as she made her way over to Beau, sitting on the bed when she'd changed. “What's the blush for?” she asked teasingly.

“Fuck you, I'm not blushing.” Her face got redder and she scowled, betrayed by her own body.

Jester poked her arm. “What's her name?”

Beau's face was aflame now and she couldn't even get through her denials without stuttering. “Wh-What? She- There's no- What? Who?”

Jester hugged her tight even though she was stiff in her arms. “Come on, you can tell me! You've got a crush~,” she sang.

“Shhh! Fjord and Caduceus are right next door, they're gonna hear you.”

“Tell me! Tell me, tell me. I'm your bestest friend, tell me all about this girl.”

Beau was defiently silent for several seconds before she sighed heavily. “Her name is Fiona.”

Jester squealed happily and moved them both to sit on the bed, kicking off her shoes. “I want to know everything.”

Beau frowned and crossed her arms. “There's nothing to tell. I barely know her. But… she's very pretty. She beat up this guy that was being a dick to her little brother. It was…” she paused, trying to give what she was feeling a word and finding none. “It was cool. She was cool.”

“Is this your first crush?”

“It's not a crush!” her voice squeaked and she cleared her throat, her face turning pink again. “She wouldn't like me anyway.”

“Well, if she didn't it'd be her own loss. You're very lovable.”

Beau rolled her eyes. “You have to say that, you're my-” She cut herself off, her eyes widening. 

“What? I'm your what?”

“Nothing. Best friend.”

Jester stared at her, serious for possibly the first time in her life. “Were you going to say ‘Mom’? Do you think of me as your mom?”

“No! That's not what I was going to say, why would I- I mean you're… That's not what I was going to say.”

Jester felt her eyes start filling with tears and she pulled her girl close to bury her tears in her short hair. “I'm going to be the best mother ever! I’m gonna love you so much! I'm going to talk about girls with you and teach you how to dance and you can come to me with all your problems!”

Beau tried to keep the sour frown on her face but couldn't stop the little smile from peaking through. “Come on, don't cry.”

Jester pulled away and wiped at her eyes. “Okay, okay. No crying. Tell me about this girl, though. I wanna know all about your first crush.”

“It's not a crush!”


	2. Fabulous Jester's Amazing Stupendous Dance School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place ~6 months after the end of A Fresh Start. Beau is 9.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These won't all be chronological but this one and the first one happen pretty close together.

The music in the Hupperduke tavern was soft and slow. The sun hadn’t quite fallen yet and the party wouldn’t start for several minutes now, so the piano player was… not happy, but willing to take Jester’s request for a waltz, provided she not try to play his piano again. She had agreed. “I promise I will not play your piano. Tonight.” Before he could protest, she was walking away. He groaned and threw up his hands but started playing.

Beau was standing in the middle of the dance floor with her arms crossed over her chest. “Why do I have to learn how to dance? I thought you were kidding.”

“I never kid about dancing. Okay, that’s a lie, but I wasn’t kidding about dancing in that particular instance. Now, come on, open your arms, it’ll be fun. It’ll teach you how to be more graceful and dexterous for fighting.” Beau didn’t move. “Also,” the blue tiefling whispered in her ear as she passed by. “-the ladies love it.”

Beau blushed but let her arms fall to her side. Jester waved Caleb over, who was currently watching from the side with Fjord, Nott, and Caduceus. His eyes widened when he seemed to realize what was happening. “What? No.”

Jester huffed. Why was everyone being so difficult? She just wanted her two most standoffish and touch averse friends to dance together in front of everyone. Was that too much to ask? “Nott, hold Beau, don’t let her leave.”

Nott ran up and wrapped her arms around Beau’s waist from behind, chanting: “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me, don’t hit me,” over and over while Beau turned around in a circle and tried to grab her to pull her away.

“Nott! Let go!”

Jester skipped over to Caleb and pried his hand out of his pocket to hold it in her own and pull. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“She’s going to kill me. Jester, you’re going to get me killed.” He looked to Fjord for help but the half-orc just shrugged. He was more scared of Jester than he was of Caleb.

“She’s not going to kill you. She needs to get used to people other than me touching her. Remember when you two didn’t know how to hug? That was so fucking sad. No one ever hugged her when she was a kid the first time, I don’t want her to not know how to touch people when she grows up this time.”

Caleb stared at her for a long time, trying to decide if she was messing him but eventually let himself be pulled into the center of the dance floor.

Beau was spinning quickly around in circles now, trying to dislodge the goblin through centrifugal force. Jester caught Nott out of the air when she finally went flying. She used her free hand to shove Caleb forward and he stumbled but caught himself on Beau’s shoulder. “Sorry...”

She was glaring at him but hadn’t smacked him yet so that was a good sign. He cleared his throat and stood in front of her. He’d always been taller than her, but he had easily a foot of height on nine year old Beau. Jester took a seat and sat Nott down on the bench next to her. “Alright!” she said, cheerily. “We’re just gonna start with a simple box step. 1, 2, 3, 4, forward, right, back, left.”

Caleb held up his hand for Beau to take and let his other hand hover over her side, waiting for permission. She finally took the offered hand. “What do I do with this hand?” She asked, waving it in his face.

“Put it on his arm. There, like that! Very good! You’re a natural!” Jester was smiling widely but Nott was cringing beside her. Both the reluctant dancers looked so stiff and awkward, she wasn’t sure anything about this could be considered ‘natural’. “Alright,” the tiefling continued. “Beau, you take a step forward with your left foot when he takes a step back with his right then bring both feet together.” Beau looked down at their feet and tried to time her steps with his. She stumbled a bit but they were both still alive so Caleb considered it a success. “Now to your right, same thing, right foot first, bring together.” She did that and then they got through the next steps surprisingly smoothly, repeating the entire sequence a few times. She was a quick learner once she got over the general awkwardness. Jester clapped. “Bravo! Now try to keep in time with the music.”

Beau looked up at Caleb and he nodded before taking his first step. She followed easily. Once she got the hang of stepping around in a box he grew brave and threw in a bit of a curveball by beginning to turn them. She panicked for a split second but fell into step and before long they were gliding around the dance floor. As she got more confident, he could feel her trying to take control of their movements.

“You’re leading,” he warned.

“I know.”

He shrugged and let her take over. Their movements were slower and their turns less dramatic, but as they fell into a rhythm he saw her beginning to smile. Their dance was interrupted by the loud horn that signalled the end of the work day and it was mere seconds before people started coming into the tavern and complaining about the music.

She stepped away from him and dropped their hands. “Uh, thanks, I guess. That wasn’t  _ completely _ mortifying.”

He nodded and bowed to her, bending perfectly at the waist. It was the proper way to end a dance, after all. She blinked in surprise and confusion before bowing back to him. Jester cheered and clapped loudly and Beau blushed when all the gnomes started looking at them. She scurried over and sat beside Caduceus, using his giant body (his head would have reached the ceiling if he didn’t have such terrible posture) to block her from view.

The firbolg smiled softly and pat her head with his large hand. “That was lovely, young Beau,” he said, his voice soothing and calm amongst the growing chaos of the tavern.

“Yes,” Jester said, pressed up against her side. “You’re very talented. We’ll try something more complex next time. Caleb, what dances do you know?”

“Uh,” he mumbled as he finally walked over to the group. “Waltz.”

“And?”

“... Waltz.”

Jester huffed like this was the greatest inconvenience of her life. “Fine. You’re both enrolled in Fabulous Jester’s Amazing Stupendous Dance School, starting right now.”

Beau and Caleb looked at each other, commiserating in their shared fates but knew it was no use arguing. Jester would make them have fun whether they liked it or not.


	3. The Fall of Fjord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beau is 11 in this one, it's a bit in the future.

Fjord was breathing heavily with the effort to keep up. He ducked down swiftly to avoid a wooden staff to the face and swept his sword towards her legs, missing entirely when she jumped into the air. She used the momentum to kick him across the face, turning full circle in the air and landing with her staff ready to defend herself if he came at her again.

“I give,” he called, falling down to the ground, breathing laboriously. He reached up to rub his chin. 

Beau stared for a long time before a smile spread across her cheeks. “I won? I beat you?”

He couldn’t stop the proud grin if he tried. “Sure did.”

Her smile fell to a suspicious frown. “You didn’t throw it, did you? Did you fucking let me win?”

Fjord shook his head and held up his hands. “You beat me, fair and square.”

“I won…” she mumbled in disbelief. “Ma!” she called, turning sharply and running to where Jester was sewing a patch on her pants. “Mom, I beat Fjord!”

Yasha came over and pulled Fjord to his feet, despite his groan of protest. He had to lean against her to keep from falling over again. “Did she actually win?” the woman asked quietly.

“Are you kidding? Look at me, she kicked my ass.”

“She’s only eleven. You got your ass handed to you by a kid.”

Fjord shrugged, still grinning. “Yeah. I guess that means I’m a good teacher.”

Yasha huffed like she didn’t believe it. “Or had a good pupil.”

“That one does seem more likely, huh?” He chuckled and looked over at where Beau was recounting their fight to an enthusiastic Jester. He glanced at Yasha to see her frowning. It wasn’t a bitter frown, just kind of sad. “Hey. You okay?”

“I…” the barbarian paused, thinking over her words. “Sometimes I think I’m going to come back to find that you guys fixed her and she’s old Beau again. But then I know I’d miss her the way she is now too. It feels like a lose-lose situation and I’m not happy either way.”

Fjord sighed and gave her his best comforting shoulder punch, keeping the wincing to a minimum. “Yeah, I get that. I still miss the old Beau sometimes. I think you took it harder than the rest of us. It’s been two years, how you doing?”

Yasha shrugged, unable to put what she felt into words. Lonely was maybe the closest, but it didn’t quite fit either. “Fine.”

Fjord wasn’t convinced but nodded. “Alright. Let’s go hear the tale of my glorious defeat, huh?” She nodded and began helping him wobble over to the others. 

Beau grinned at her as she wandered up. “Did you see? Did you watch?”

Yasha nodded and cleared her throat. “Perhaps… I should give you some lessons?” she said cautiously. 

Beau’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“If you wanted. You should know how to hold your own against all kinds of different fighters.”

“Yeah!” Nott agreed. “For ranged people like me you can catch bolts out of the air!” She whipped up her crossbow and took a shot.

“No!” the others yelled.

Beau dodged it fluidly and it hit the tree behind her with a thunk. Everyone turned to look at Nott and she grimaced when they glared. “Oops.”


	4. The Thought that Counts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beau is ten and her family is ridiculous.

Caleb snorted when he was rudely awakened from a restful sleep. He didn’t get a lot of those, so he wanted to enjoy the dreamless nights when he could. “Wha-?” A hand was slapped over his mouth.

“Shh…” His initial instinct to panic and roll up into a ball stalled when he recognized Jester’s too-loud whispering. “It’s just me.”

Nott’s face peeked up over the tielfing’s shoulder and she grinned with sharp teeth. “We’re doing a surprise!”

“Shhh!” Jester hissed. “You’re too loud.”

Fjord groaned from across the hut and sat up. “You’re all too loud. What in tarnation is going on?”

Caduceus slept sitting up and he just blinked his eyes open tiredly, not really focusing on them but awake nonetheless.

Jester put her finger to her mouth and pointed at Beau, curled up in the blankets and snoring quietly. Her hair was longer now, long enough to be a damn mess from sleep, and she was drooling open mouthed on her own arm propped under her head. Yasha, who had woken up at the first sign of noise, sat up slowly. “What about her?” she asked, at her normal tone of voice.

Beau snorted and hummed quietly but remained asleep.

Fjord rolled his eyes. “Why does no one in this goddamn group know how to whisper?”

Jester gestured for them all to follow her out of the hut. “Okay,” she said once they were all out in the open. “She shouldn’t be able to hear us out here.”

“What’s going on?” Caleb asked, pulling on his coat.

“Today is Beau’s birthday.”

Everyone was silent for a moment like it never occurred to them that this might come up. Since when did Beau have a birthday? “I always thought she was hatched from an egg or something,” Nott said, unhelpfully.

“Well, how old is she? Is she ten?”

“She’s been alive for twenty five years now. Doesn’t that make her twenty-five?” Fjord asked, scratching his head.

They thought about the little girl they had come to know over the last year together and shook their head. “She’s ten. Today is her tenth birthday and it’s the first she’s had with us as a kid. We need to make it special,” Jester insisted. “We need a cake.”

The looked around at the miles of forest that surrounded them. “A mud cake!” Nott said. “I can make one of those.”

“Yes, I suppose. It would be symbolic, I guess, we can’t eat it.”

Nott looked confused but nodded. “Okay, sure.  _ You guys _ won’t eat it.”

“Balloons?”

“Presents?”

Jester groaned and tugged at her hair. “This is going to be the worst birthday ever.”

“We’ll make her presents,” Caleb said. 

Yasha started towards the trees. “I’m making a flower crown.”

Nott went to follow her. “I’ll get started on the cake. I know where to find the tastiest mud.”

Fjord cleared his throat. “I can carve her something out of wood. It won’t be pretty but…”

“It’s the thought that counts, Fjord,” Caleb said. He blushed a little and turned to Jester. “Would you be willing to teach me a… dance that she and I could do together? Something new and special?”

Jester gasped. “That’s a great idea! Come on, we’ll get started right now.”

Caduceus watched the commotion with blank eyes. He was never ready to do much of anything this early in the morning. He hummed and headed back to the hut, wanting to curl up and go back to sleep. He smiled at Beau who was awake and sitting up as he crawled by. “Good morning, Miss Beau,” he said.

She gave him a small, barely conscious smile and continued watching her friends scrambling outside the hut. “They must have forgotten that I can see and hear them from in here.”

He hummed and sat next to her, closing his eyes. “It’s the thought that counts.” He heard that somewhere but he was too tired to remember where.

She nodded and leaned against his fuzzy arm, her hair sticking up a million ways. “Yeah. I’ll pretend to be surprised.” They stayed like that for several minutes, Caduceus slipping away slowly. “How long do you think they’ll expect me to be asleep in here? I’m hungry.”


	5. The Gentleman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 15 years after the events of A Fresh Start, Beau is 24.

The man was thrown at her feet. He scrambled to get his hands under him enough to push himself up to his knees but it was difficult with his wrists chained together. When he finally sat up, he looked at her through his eyelashes, unwilling to stare her glare in the face. “Gentleman, I’m sorry. She saw me, I couldn’t let her go to the guards. It won’t happen again, I swear.”

Beau leaned back against the chair casually, like she didn’t have a man’s life held in her calloused fingers. “Fjord,” she said, turning to look at her uncle and second in command at her side. His hair and beard were dotted with gray and the scars on his face wrinkled when he smiled down at her. “Tell me about this girl.”

“As I understand it, Gentleman, she was fifteen. An orphan and urchin, who lived nearby where Heskl completed his job. She saw him through a hole a fence. He stabbed her eleven times and dumped her body in the river. Is that about right, Heskl?”

Heskl shook his head and looked at Beau desperately. “Please, I couldn’t let her go to the guards, she would have ratted me out and it all would have come back to you.”

“We would have handled it the way we’ve always handled it. We don’t kill innocent people, Heskl, that was the first thing I told you when I took you on. There are no second chances. You should have checked the area first, and then finished your mission, your carelessness killed that girl. Your contract with me is forfeit. Take him to Nott.”

Yasha stepped forward and grabbed Heskl by the arm, lifting him to his feet with ease. The years hadn’t changed her at all. She still looked exactly as she did the day she ripped away Beau’s staff. “No!” he exclaimed as Yasha started dragging him to the basement. “No please, anything but her, Gentleman! Please!”

She could still hear his calling even after the door was closed and frowned. “Start the music,” she called, standing from her throne-like chair and moving to her private table. “I don’t want to hear the screams. Someone bring me a drink.” The drinks and conversation started to flow once more as the Evening Nip began to fill with music. There was a mug sat in front of her and she took a swig of it without looking at it, coughing when the taste of chocolate milk filled her mouth. “Ma!” she exclaimed as Jester sat down beside her. 

Jester frowned at her and wiped away a droplet of milk from Beau’s chin with her thumb. “You drink too much ale, Button. It’ll make you sick one day.”

“I’m a criminal mastermind, Mama, I can’t been seen drinking chocolate milk with my mom.” There was some gray in her blue hair also, but she had it combed back and pulled up to hide most of it. Her face was covered in smile lines and wrinkles also. Those she didn’t mind so much, she liked her smile lines, said they told the world she was a happy person. It was the gray that bothered her because quote: ‘Gray is so boring’.

“That’s why I got chocolate. It’s dark so it’ll be harder for people to tell what it is if they see into your cup.” She looked so pleased with herself that Beau couldn't help but to take a drink. “Have you heard from Caleb? I thought he was coming in tonight?”

Beau hummed and nodded. “He is. He’s went down to visit with Nott really quick. I just sent her some work so he’ll probably make his way back up before too long.”

“Gentleman,” Fjord said quietly as he stepped up behind her. At first it had been weird to have her favorite uncle be so formal with her, but he had insisted on it. No one who knew it was allowed to say her real name, even people she loved. “Someone is asking for you up top. He comes with many gifts.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We haven’t used that passcode since I took over. A spy with outdated information?”

“Anette doesn’t think so. She thinks you’ll want to meet him.”

Beau was curious now. “Alright. Send him to room 203, I’ll meet him there. I want the Nein to come with me, just in case.”

“Caduceus isn’t in, he went to Pumat’s for some supplies.”

“That’s fine, send Yasha for Nott and Caleb and once we’re all together we’ll head up.”

It took a few minutes for the others to gather up. Nott had probably changed the most out of her family from when she met them. She didn’t look like a goblin anymore, she was a halfling with dark brown skin and long silver hair, though she was still a goblin on the inside. It had led to many hilarious interactions that involved growling and snarling and even biting. Beau used her as an interrogator and she was in charge of getting rid of problems within the organization. She was very good at her job. Caleb had made clones of them all and he was the only one who had had to use his yet, so his new body was still in it’s thirties looking the same as the day she met him. He was surer of himself now, walking with his back straight and his head high. He carried power well. 

Beau led them up the stairs to the tavern and she waved at the barkeep, Anette. The half-elf wiggled her fingers flirtatiously and blew her boss a kiss. Beau paused mid stride and almost walked over to her, but Fjord rolled his eyes and pushed her forward. If Beau started flirting they’d be there for an hour.

They made their way up the stairs to the inn portion of the tavern and unlocked the door to room 203. Fjord insisted on going in first, but the others were right on his ass. There was a form inside sitting on the bed, lit by the flickering lantern. He looked up at them when they entered and gave a sour grin. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Where the hell have you bastards been, I’ve been looking all over. Beau, you haven’t changed at all, which is highly concerning. I expect you’ve got plenty of stories for me.”

Caleb stepped forward first, even Yasha was too stunned to move. “Mollymauk?”


	6. Fiona

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beau is thirteen.

It had been almost a year since the last time they’d been in Zadash. Their trip to Tal’Dorei had been long and arduous. Beau had become a teenager while they were gone, with all the attitude that came with it. She’d grown her hair out long again and let Yasha braid it in an intricate, traditional Xhorhassian style.

“Tie up Dancing Queen,” Jester said from the back of the cart as she sorted through bags. The others had already gone into the tavern to reserve them rooms and a table.

Beau hummed disinterestedly but tied the horses to the post, then moved to start detaching the cart.

“Beau?” asked a voice she didn’t recognize.

She looked up, confused, at a yellow haired girl about her age. She was standing near the entrance to the tavern, her head tilted to the side and her frown unsure. She looked familiar but Beau couldn’t put her finger on where she knew her from. She was taller than Beau by several inches and her short blonde hair was undercut and draped over the left side of her face. “Yeah?” Beau asked.

The girl grinned and started walking towards her, tucking her hair back behind her ear. “Hey, it’s been a long time. It’s me, Fiona.”

Jester paused at the name and peeked over the edge of the cart, grinning but trying not to interrupt them. She had heard a lot about Fiona back before they left Wildemount but had never met her. All she knew was that she and Beau would hang out every time that passed through Zadash up until they were about eleven and then Jester didn’t hear about her at all.

Beau’s face started to feel hot. “Fiona! Uh, hello, hi there. It’s, yeah, it’s been a few years. You got… tall.”

“You around for a while?”

“We’re in for a week. Do you wanna hang out, we could- we could hang out.”

“Can you get away now? I was just about to head over and see some friends.”

Beau looked back at the cart and Jester ducked down quickly, pressing herself to the wood and trying to pretend that she wasn’t eavesdropping. Her horn hit hard against the side and made a noise that she was sure would give her away. “Ma,” Beau called, sounding exasperated. Busted.

“Yeah?” Jester squeaked.

“I’m going out for a while. I’ll be back for dinner.”

“Okay, Button. Make smart choices!”

She didn’t have to look to know that Beau was rolling her eyes. When she heard them start to leave, she peeked back over the side of the cart just in time for Beau to glance back at her. Jester grinned and made kissy faces at her teasingly until her sweet little girl flipped her the bird and hurried away.


	7. A Lesson in Losing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beau is thirteen here.

“Has anyone seen Beau?” Jester asked as she came down the stairs and into the tavern below. “She’s not in our room.”

“She said she was going to hang out with Fiona and some friends,” Nott said, not pausing her fingers as she braided flowers in Caleb’s hair. 

“She should be back by now, it’s getting late.”

Fjord stood up, quickly downing the last of his mug. “I’ll go look for her,” he said, walking passed Jester and gently squeezing her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s just having a lot of fun.” The second he stepped out of the inn he saw her, standing off the side of the door and pacing back and forth, her face turned away from him. He sighed and chuckled. “There you are. Jester was getting worried. Come on in, we’ll order you some dinner.”

She jumped in surprise and turned around quickly, and he gasped. Her face was dotted with bruises, one on her eye that was beginning to swell up and block her vision, one of her cheek, one on her jaw, and her lip was split open and leaking blood all the way down her chin and onto her neck. “Holy shit! You scared me.”

“What the fuck happened to you?”

She looked away, unable to meet his eyes, and shrugged evasively. “Nothing. Why, is something different?”

“Beau, you look like you got kicked in the face by a donkey. Are you hurt anywhere else?” He took a step forward and the limp in her step when she moved away answered his question. “What the fuck happened?”

She started twisting her fingers nervously. “It wasn’t my fault. I was just trying to help.”

Fjord sighed and crouched down her her height. “I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you, I promise. I’m just worried. Who did this to you?”

“Would you believe me if I said that I actually  _ did _ get kicked in the face by a donkey?”

“Would that be the truth?”

“Not… exactly.”

“I want the truth, Beau. Are you okay? How did this happen to you?”

She hesitated still and Fjord started to wonder just how bad this could be if she was scared to tell him. They’d always had a good friendship. Jester was her mother figure, she treated Caleb and Caduceus like strange older brothers, and Nott like an aunt, but Fjord was her friend. She told him everything. “I may have… disobeyed you.” And now he was really worried. He didn’t give her orders often, but when he did they were serious.

“Beau. What happened?” 

“I was on my way here a little while ago and I saw a lady walking down the street. She was really old, like thirty probably. But she was really pretty and I just noticed her is all. But as I was looking at her, I saw someone come out of an alley and put his hand on her mouth and pull her in. I went to help and there were two guys in there, one of them was holding her down to go through her pockets and the other one was standing by the wall, so I went over and kicked him really hard in the kneecap and then I punched his face when he fell down. I think I was enough of a distraction for the lady to get away because they got really mad when she was gone and kept hitting me. You told me not to get into fights I couldn’t win, and I lost. I’m sorry.”

Fjord kneeled down in front of her and wrapped her up in his arms. He pulled away when she winced and reached up to touch the bruises on her face. “Are you okay, are you bleeding anywhere, is anything broken?”

“I think my ankle is broken, one of them stomped on it. But everything else is fine.”

He sighed heavily, and reached up to rub his brow, feeling a headache coming on. “Beau, that was reckless and stupid, and in the future you should look for a grown up. You could have been killed.” She just nodded along with him solemnly. “And I am… so proud of you. That was stupidly brave but you should never, ever do it again, at least until you’re an adult.”

She looked up at him with one wide brown eye (the other one was nearly swollen shut) and a skeptical look on her face. “Full disclosure? It’s not the first time. It’s just the first time I lost. And I’ll probably do it again.”

Yes, that was definitely a headache coming on. Oh boy, when Jester hears about this she’ll have a  conniption. “Maybe let’s not tell Jester that part?”

“You want me to lie to my mother?”

“Yes.”

She shrugged. “Alright. Hey, if you and Jester get married, will that make you my dad?”

He was startled by the sudden change in subject and jumped to his feet. “Uhhh, what makes you think we’re going to get married?”

“I think I’d like it if you were my dad,” she said, limping passed him.

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“Well, you didn’t answer mine either.” She stepped in through the inn doors. “Ma! Can you take a look at my ankle?”

He heard Jester’s voice drifting out through the open window. “What? Why? Button, what hap- WHAT THE FUCK!” The birds on the roof startled at the sound of Jester’s maternal rage and flew away and Fjord took a moment to steel himself before following Beau inside.


End file.
